Chapter 148

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Third Floor Boss Room

"So this is…suboptimal?"

"Yes!" Yelled out CQ as she frantically gestured. "This is wet and miserable and...my golems can't maneuver in this mess! Plus a lot of our spells just go haywire due to all the water in the air!"

Alexandra winced as she looked at her surroundings. They were at the top of the pyramid, ground zero for the waterfall falling from the ceiling of the floor, and it indeed was…very, very moist. As in complete air saturation, with a constant mist around. Ever the golems standing on the edge of the first pool were totally drenched.

"I hadn't considered that. I'm sorry. So, no acting as boss for the third floor?"

"I mean, I could try, but…"

"I'm not going to make you fight a battle in an environment you hate kiddo." Said the Earth-born as she headpatted her daughter.

"Thanks mom!"

"No problem. Now…" Alexandra tapped her chin. "I'm going to need a boss for this one."

"How about manty?"

Alexandra looked to the side at the simple, but still extremely heavily armored and lethal manticore mech, currently happily rolling in the water, and smiled. Her daughter had ended up naming her pet, however simplistic it was, and the manticore pup had finally became available for recreation, if she believed her interface.

Which was good because the mech was…experimental, to say the least. It was fucking terrifying, but all in all it was more an adaptation of the systems developed for the Templar spider tank hammered into a manticore looking shape.

And then covered in guns. LOTS of guns. Manticores were stupidly big, and she could house missiles in it if she wanted! Although so far she'd refrained. Anyone who faced it would still regret it though. It was a shame it wasn't a very cost efficient weapons platform, even compared to the templar tank, which wasn't a very efficient either.

"I don't think he'd be very adapted to that environment. Besides, he'd be spending his days away from you, and I don't think either of you want that. No, I'll come up with something else. Right now the problem is going to be getting you a boss room."

"Can I have a palace? I'm supposed to be the Crimson Queen after all!" Said CQ as she struck a pose, and Alexandra chuckled.

"Sure thing." She frowned. "Uh. Actually, I might have an idea."

"Oh?"

"Yes. And it's going to involve mommy a lot." She sighed. "Because for the life of me I'm not going to be able to make it look good without her help."

That got CQ's attention.

"What are you thinking about mom?"

"Ever heard of hedge mazes and 'french gardens'?"

*****

Allya blinked as she heard the knock on her door. Usually her guards simply told her someone wished to meet with her, intercepting them far before they were able to knock themselves.

"Come in!" She said, and her eyebrows rose as the door opened, and Dominique stepped through. The guild representative bowed deeply, and Allya cleared her throat. "Hello representative. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I, uh." The ex-attendant shifted uncomfortably. "I came to apologize."

"Apologize?"

"For…for my behavior. I was out of line during the…incident with the Void Blades. And ever since the rescue has taken place I have been neglecting my duties as a representative."

Allya looked at the young woman for a few long seconds.

"Did Starvak put you up to this?" She asked curiously.

"No, why?"

"Just a thought." Allya leaned forward. "Your apology is accepted. I won't pretend like your reaction to the Void Blades holding adventurers as slaves was anything but complete and total overreach. But I can definitely understand having bigger problems than attending council meetings." If nothing else, having the guild off her back, however temporarily, had been a welcome change. "I was told they were your party?"

"Well, no, but they were accompanied by an attendant I was trained under and who was tutoring me when their…disappearance happened."

"Ah." Allya winced. "I haven't heard about a guild attendant being in their prisoners." Because had there been, Starvak would have attacked, guild neutrality be damned. Because attacking and enslaving guild personnel was a declaration of war against it.

"That's because there wasn't. They won't tell us what happened to her, although according to guildmaster Erik, I mean Dragonslayer, she is fine, if seriously wounded."

"That is usually considered the direct opposite of 'fine', but I take what you meant." Which begged the question of why they hadn't known who the Void Blades were and the fact that they'd taken adventurers prisoner if one of the party had escaped. "I assume you have been talking with the rescuees?"

"Yes! We've mainly tried to get a hold of their last teammate, to learn what happened to her."

"Oh, right. The extradimensional?" Allya had to admit that she was curious about meeting one. Her dynasty had been founded by an extradimensional scientist and archmage after all, and to this day the spells she created were still used by her family during wars.

"Correct. Unfortunately, it appears she was taken by someone else. Who, they had no idea. Someone administered them with a drug right after they were captured, and their memories of the fight is a mess. And the mercenaries refused to talk before they were handed over to the dungeon."

"That might change, if we ask Crystal nicely." Allya smiled wolfishly. "If nothing else, her maids are terrifying and apparently good at slicing people up, given what happened to the poor bastard that violated the kill zone around the military entrance."

"Right. That…might be a good plan. Do you think you could arrange a meeting for me with the dungeon core?"

"You could do it yourself, you have direct access."

"Yes and no. We can pass messages to the core, but she only truly talks with you." Dominique wasn't about to comment that the guild had realized they'd been slowly, but surely, pissing off the dungeon core over time, and that the current 'hands off' attitude whenever possible was to try to avoid to inflame tensions for now. "Besides, you are the baroness and her ally, she will be much more willing to talk to you and take requests without it sounding like, well…"

"Like you're pressuring or threatening her into something."

"Yes."

"Well, I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any guarantees. One of her conditions for keeping the prisoners was that she could do whatever she wished with them, as long as she treated them relatively well. 'Relatively' being the operative word here, I'm given to understand she's executed a few for attempted escape already."

"That's unsurprising, unfortunately, given those scumbags. And thank you, baroness."

"No, thank you for bringing this to me. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask." Allya hesitated, then shrugged internally. She knew her reputation of concern was a bit overinflated, but she might as well add a layer. "That goes for the adventurers that were rescued as well."

"Thank you! That is deeply appreciated."

"Don't mention it. Now, will there be anything else?" Allya smiled faintly as she picked up a contract on her desk. "Because otherwise, I have the wonders of bureaucracy to go through."

"Of, of course! I'll be on my way then. Have a good day Allya!"

"You too, Dominique."

*****

"You cannot be serious." Said Emilia as she looked at the plans. "A hedge maze? In a dungeon? You do realize fireballs are a thing, right?"

"Well, yes, obviously, so we'll have to put something more sturdy inside the mazes."

"I didn't mean like trying to burn your way through, I meant causing an uncontrollable blaze! You'll need fire suppression systems, something to keep the entire place from going up the second someone whips out a flame spell at least!"

"That's doable."

"Yes, but still. And a garden? I admire the variety, but we don't have that many flowers."

"We have enough to make it work." Emilia gave the Earth-born a withering look, and she sighed. "Look, I know it won't be necessarily the height of gardening, but it is an idea. Besides, we don't need to build it right away. We can just make CQ her palace." She tapped the section on the plans showing the Renaissance style french castle. It wasn't Versailles per se, but it was definitely deserving of the title 'palace'. "And build the battlefield section in front, put the gardens in later."

"I'm also pretty confused as to why you want a battlefield section to begin with."

"With those three areas, we have a pretty good fourth floor. And…well, mainly it's recycling." Alexandra shrugged. "I have tons of musket golems and unrifled artillery that don't really have a point in my current forces, plus the production facilities to mass produce them. I'd rather not throw the design or the built units to the trash, even if the forges can be repurposed. Besides, you saw the adventurers reactions to the group that brought out the muskets as loot!"

"I suppose that's fair enough. But weren't you always complaining about the cost of ammunition?"

"Which is why I had Ella make this!" Alexandra pulled out a vial of black and grainy powder, and set it down on the table.

Emilia tilted her head.

"Basic black powder? Is that what it is?"

"Corned powder actually, not meal. But yes! After kicking the Republic's ass we had all the raw materials necessary. We still can't manufacture our own alchemical gunpowder, although Ella is still working on that, but we do have this."

"It's going to be anemic compared to the current ammunition. Not to mention unstable."

"Agreed, but we don't need it to be powerful. Or safe. This is a dungeon, not a military endeavor. And the adventuring parties will be facing an entire battlefield of golems. Sectioned off into encounters of course, but still. We want to give them a chance after all."

"Right, and telling them and the baroness that also obfuscates the fact that you're always short on ammo for the real guns."

"Hey, it's all about how you phrase it. So, what do you think?"

The vampire girl looked at the schematics, and shrugged.

"It should work. But you're right, the gardens should be kept until later. I haven't finished my search yet, although I'm getting close." Alexandra tilted her head at her advisor's frustrated tone, but decided not to ask. The vampire girl had been steadily growing more restless as she failed to find references to the Order, and it didn't seem to be simply out of professional frustration. "So I can't really lend you hand. Neither will I be able to for a bit afterwards."

"Why?"

Emilia gave Alexandra an inscrutable look.

"You'll find out when I finally find them."

*****

"I got it!" Said Emilia as she waltzed into the workshop.

"Got what?" Asked Alexandra, curiously, as the vampire advisor waved about a book. It had only been a day or so since they'd talked, and she was part way through adjusting the cleaning tools for her musket golems. Turns out, alchemical powder created a lot less fouling -and smoke- than blackpowder, and that was becoming a huge problem for any kind of sustained fire.

"The Order! Here!" She flipped the book open, allowing Alexandra to clearly see the title, 'Ashes of the Old World: Heretical cults and organizations that defied His Edicts'. "The Order to Restore Humanity, a heretical cult that went against the God of Fire's edicts, and sought to use the technology and fire of the Old World to uplift humanity back to its so called 'former greatness', irrespective of the danger or the fact that said greatness almost ended in our extinction by our own hands. Upon open defiance of the Edicts, the Order was eradicated by the Custodians of the flame, circa 263 post Dawn of the Flames."

Alexandra whistled softly. 263 post Dawn of the Flames? That was thousands of years ago!

And also…

"That's…interestingly worded."

"Such texts always are. They're fairly early in history, and the reverence to the God of Fire's words were much greater back then. People were far stricter, and more virulent, about the edicts back then. There was no inquisition to serve as a middle ground, and the adjudicators hadn't come to be yet."

"How…wait, middle ground? You mean these guys are the moderators?"

"Of course! Otherwise the only solution would be to send a custodian and destroy everything."

"...Ah." That…explained a lot. The adjudicators had to be some kind of safety valve. The Custodians had to have realized that enforcing those edicts with brute force only went so far, and tried to lessen the problem. Which might explain why the adjudicator had been doing her investigation. Trying to determine if it was worth it to bring down the hammer or not. And why she'd just dumped the problem onto the town as soon as she didn't find a link, since Alexandra had stolen it away.

That denoted a level of mercy she simply didn't believe these people had, or a level of vulnerability that was quite frankly staggering. Given the demonstration of power the God of Fire had done upon his return, it was very unexpected.

And begged a lot of questions.

"But anyway!" Emilia closed the book with a resounding clap. "Would you consider this current crisis resolved? The mercenaries and all. Your team is safe and sound in the hands of the guild, we have the mercs under custody to interrogate them if necessary, and while we don't have a bead on that 'Order', we do have someplace to start and unravel some stuff."

Alexandra blinked. What was the vampire girl driving at?

"Uh, sure, why?"

"Why?" Emilia giggled, before walking forward, grabbing Alexandra by the collar and dragging her down to be level with her. "Because you made a promise to me honey." Said the vampire girl in a low and sultry tone that made Alexandra very weak in the knees.. "Now, how about you make that bedroom and equipment, and I'll see about handing over all of our responsibilities for a week to our subordinates."

Emilia pulled a tightly rolled up list out of her cleavage -which given the fact that she had her dimensional pouches, could be nothing other than deliberate-, and Alexandra's eyes almost bulged out as she unwrapped it and saw the size of the list.

And the stuff on it.

This…was going to be a very interesting week.

"Y-Yes honey."

"Good girl."